Reporting Errors to Microsoft…
Who in their right minds wants Microsoft full access to whatever information they choose to send to themselves when you accidentally click on the box that pops up wanting you to report an application error or system crash to Microsoft? Not me! I personally find screaming an obscenity at the offending application much more therapeutic than reporting the crash to Microsoft! For ages I’ve been wanting to get rid of that annoying option. Purely by accident, while trying to solve a completely different problem, I discovered how to remove the option in Windows XP:
- Click Start -> Run…
- Type “services.msc” and hit Enter (obviously omitting the quotes!)
- Right click Error Report Service and choose Properties.
- Stop the service.
- Choose Disabled as the Startup Type.
- Click OK.
While you’re at it, stop and disable the following services:
- Clipbook (do you really want remote users to have access to what you cut and paste?!)
- Messenger (exploited by the latest version of spyware makers)
- NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (makes it possible for a remote user with NetMeeting to access your computer; if you figure out why anyone would want to allow this service to run, let me know!)
- Remote Registry (do you really want remote users to modify registry settings on your computer?!)
- Telnet (a major security hole; unless you have a specific reason to use this, keep it disabled)…
If you’re not on a network, you can also safely stop and disable the Computer Browser, DHCP Client, and SSDP Discovery services if they are started. However, if you eventually end up creating a network, don’t forget to change the Startup Type back to Automatic.
I came across this same solution somwhere while removing all of the ÇRÃP that Dell insisted on including on our brand new computer (it’s like getting your new family car and finding it already so plastered with ads that it could run in Nascar). Unfortunately lost the instructions when I had to reformat the hard drive to fix the (still ongoing) problems. (Thank you, Dell. Thank you sooooo Fing much!) So you’re post has been very timely. You should consider posting a larger blog on “Things to do to set up your brand new computer”. It’s a pain having to serach everywhere to find out how to get rid, to TRULY get rid, of Messenger, FrontPage, My Schedule, the empty directories (xerox, MSN Gaming ZOne, OUtlook, etc. etc.), Outlook, QuickTime, JUke Box, etc., etc., etc., ….
Hmmm, any other suggestions? I’ve been getting the “Send error info?” messages again and searched out this article to find out how I’d gotten rid of them before. When I checked, the Error Report Service was already Disabled. Rapidly closing on lvl 36, Sean
As noted, I’ve still been getting that “tell us your problems” Microsoft dialog. Apparently, so have some of our machines in the field: Currently, machines in the field are experience issues where the Windows Error Reporting dialog is being shown on the screen. The following registry keys need to be disabled to address this problem: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting “DoReport” needs to be set to 0 “ShowUI” needs to be set to 0 In my registry both were set to 1. We’ll see if setting them to 0 actually solves the problem this time. Working thru lvl 53, Sean
You are a darling!!!! Thank you ever so much!!!!!!!
Claire.